Presidential trip anatomy of a news event

Hillsboro held up well in its first-ever visit by a sitting president, getting a high-profile look at high-profile political posturing, as well as dissection of the anatomy of a first-class national news event.

With all of the mover and shakers of Washington County seated in the middle of a makeshift arena at Intel’s Ronler Acres campus, 100 lottery-winning Intel employees perched in bleachers on the side and a phalanx of media around the edges, the giant Oregon microchip maker did a more than passable job.

Well-dressed news reporters from national outlets like CNN and FOX News primped and preened in front of cameras on wobbly stages while assistants in regular street clothes swarmed with makeup brushes and microphones.

Every hour or so, the talking heads stood up straight and tall to give the world live “updates,” on the very little that was happening — for about two hours.

The regular press, both local and national, rubbernecked and waited while the President toured the factory, spoke with workers, then met with some students and VIPs backstage before mounting the dais for about 10 minutes of comments. His theme: Educate to Innovate.

He talked first about taking a look at some of Intel’s advanced clean room facilities, and peering through an electron microscope to see microprocessors approaching the size of an atom.

He also met with a handful of Oregon students, including a pair of students from Catlin Gabel, near Beaverton, who each took home $50,000 scholarships in 2010 after placing second in Intel’s ISEF fair competition. Three Beaverton high school students showed off a fusion project, and a gaggle of giggling pre-teens from Robert Gray Middle School in Portland used Legos to show him the robot they built to repair broken bones.

Obama, when he saw the students working with Legos, said he figured: “Now this is more my speed.”

He was wrong, as the girls proceeded to wow him with the robots they’d created from the Dutch building toys, a far cry from the “pretty tall Lego towers” he remembered making as a boy.

“I have to say, for all the gadgets you’ve got here, the students and science projects I got to see impressed me the most,” Obama said.

To make the United States a winner in the game of innovation, America has to continue to challenge its youth, rather than lower its standards to make things understandable to the middle-aged and older, he said.

One-half of Intel’s 82,000 employees in the country have advanced technical degrees, said Intel Chief Executive Officer Paul Otellini while introducing Obama. But, “looking forward, we are concerned there may be a shortfall of qualified experts in science and math in this country to meet the needs of our industry,” he said.

Obama reiterated projections that over the next decade, half of all new jobs will require some form of post-high school education. But today, as many as one-quarter of all students in the United States fail to finish high school, he said.

Companies like Intel who need to hire the best are being forced “into the position of looking overseas for skilled labor,” Obama said. “We can’t win the race to win the future if we can’t educate our kids at home.”

He hit again on points from his January State of the Union address — providing financial rewards to schools that show meaningful reform that can be replicated, preparing 100,000 new teachers in science, math and technology, and reforming community colleges.

Intel says it has focused on education based on the belief that young people are the key to solving the world’s challenges, and that problem-solving skills are the foundation for innovation.

Intel and the Intel Foundation has invested more than $1 billion in education initiatives since its founding in 1968.

In conjunction with Obama’s Educate to Innovate campaign, Intel also pledged to spend $200 million to advance math and science education over the next 10 years.